Tim Walz addressed something head-on at the Democratic National Convention last month, as he accepted the party's nomination for vice president — it was guns.
“Look, I know guns. I'm a veteran. I'm a hunter. I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress and I have the trophies to prove it," he said. "But I'm also a dad. I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe that our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”
Walz used to be such a strong defender of gun rights that the NRA gave him an A rating at the start of his political career. Today, his grade is an F.
That reflects a larger shift in the Democratic Party and points to where gun policy might be headed if Democrats win the presidential election in November.
How Democrats once did (and did not) talk about guns
In the early 2000s, Democratic candidates lived in fear of talking about guns and would shut down any suggestion that they campaign on it, says Matt McTighe, a party consultant for hire at the time.
“Even the candidates themselves would say, ‘I’m totally good on the issue. I will support background checks. I’ll support all the policies. But we just can’t talk about it. It’s not a winning issue. There’s no constituency for it. Just don’t make me say anything about it.’”
Today, McTighe is with the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety. He says if you want to see the change in the party over time, you just have to look at a forum his group sponsored in August of 2019, where the leading Democratic primary candidates met in Iowa specifically to talk about guns.
“And they all showed up on, like, four days’ notice and they were all trying to outdo one another on who could have the most robust gun safety policy,” he said.
Also in attendance at that forum was then-senator and presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, who said in her address:
“The president of the United States has to stand up to the NRA and say, ‘Enough is enough. I’m not going to any longer accept your false choice that you’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away,’ and that we need reasonable gun safety laws in this country, including universal background checks and a renewal of the assault weapons ban.”
The shift in the party came over years
At a side panel during the Democratic National Convention, two unlikely groups came together for a joint event titled: “Protecting Future Generations: The Power of Reproductive Rights and Gun Safety on the Ballot.”
It’s not an obvious choice to put abortion and guns side by side as campaign issues.
Every time abortion has been on the ballot since Roe v Wade was overturned, voters have chosen to expand reproductive rights — you can’t say the same for guns.
But for Angela Ferrell-Zabala — the executive director of the gun safety group Moms Demand Action, who spoke at the DNC event — changing views on gun laws is possible.
“We've done so much to move this issue that used to be a third rail,” she said, adding that in 2010, a quarter of congressional Democrats aligned with the NRA or had an A rating from the association. This year, only one Democratic House candidate and no Democratic Senate candidates received an A grade.
There were a few turning points that led to this change, says Matt Lacombe — the author of Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners Into a Political Force.
For one, the NRA became increasingly aligned and intertwined with the Republican Party, making it easier for Democrats to take the opposing stance. The NRA also became embroiled in some internal conflicts, scandal and legal challenges that have weakened and distracted it. And then gun deaths have become increasingly prominent in American society, along with school shooter drills that make gun violence front of mind for many parents.
Put all that together, and many Americans started to feel more strongly about gun safety laws.
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“The advantage that Republicans used to have on this issue was a result of the fact that the pro-gun side cared a lot more about it than the gun control side,” Lacombe says. “That has flipped in a way that maybe hasn’t had the impact that reproductive rights has, but that nonetheless sort of changes which constituencies of each party end up being most important, electorally.”
In fact, Congress recently passed its first major gun legislation since the 1990s. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expanded background checks and funding for red flag laws, among other things. President Biden signed it into law in June 2022.
Shifting the language might shift some views
It’s not surprising that gun safety activists and blue state politicians claim progress on this issue. But Democrats in purple states are also finding footing, like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who also spoke at the “Protecting Future Generations” event at the Democratic National Convention.
Whitmer told NPR that talking about guns and reproductive rights helped her party win a majority in the Michigan state legislature. She calls these “freedom” issues.
“Do I have the freedom to make my own decisions about my body and my future and my family? Do I have the freedom to drop my child off at school and not worry that they are going to spend the whole day thinking about where their easiest exit place is, as opposed to being able to focus on what the lesson is of the day?”
This is part of a trend. These days you don’t often hear Democrats talk about gun control — the phrase you hear is “freedom from violence.” And for Whitmer, these language choices matter and could be a way Democrats shift views.
“I think that it is important to use the language, whether it is talking about abortion as abortion and health care, or it is being very clear about what we're talking about when it comes to common sense gun safety laws,” Whitmer said. “We’re not talking about taking away every person’s gun in this country. We’re talking about making our communities, our schools, our places of worship and education safer places.”
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